


The Phantom Prom Date

by Chibifukurou



Category: Sparrow Hill Road - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Depression, Grief/Mourning, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 00:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17032479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibifukurou/pseuds/Chibifukurou
Summary: The first stage of grief is Denial. Even when you're dead





	The Phantom Prom Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kalirush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalirush/gifts).



> Rose says she spent the first year of her death wandering the twilight roads closest to the world of the living, trying to find her way home. Getting picked up, only to disappear again because she didn't know what she was supposed to do.

_There's a girl walking on the roadside,_  
_Small and scared and begging for a ride,_  
_Hair bleached pale and wearing green._  
_That my friend is a ghost you've seen._  
  
_Offer a ride_  
_And when you look_  
_She will be gone_  
_Your soul she took._  
  
#

Gary Daniels takes Rosie Marshall home. She‘s beautiful in the way of all temporary things. Her hair lemon bleached, and the green of her dress shining under the first hints of dawn. She looks like a creature made of glass and light

Gary has never seen anything more beautiful. After she walks through her front door, and disappears from sight, it feels like a light has been snuffed out.

He sits with that feeling for a long moment. Engraves the sight of her into his memories. The weight of her head resting on his shoulder. And the smell of her perfume. Every bit of this night frozen into place. As unchangeable as time is for the Living.

He wants to run after her, get down on one knee and beg her to be his bride.

But they already have a plan. And besides, he will have plenty of time to ask her. They have their whole lives ahead of them. 

He starts up the car and heads home. He’ll come check on her in the afternoon. 

#

He wakes up when his Mother comes and sits on his bed. Her face is splotchy like she’s been crying. He wonders if Grandma had died. She’d been sick for months now. He’d need to tell Rosie that he’d be heading out of town and talk to her about when they could go on their next date. 

He wouldn’t want her to worry about him. 

“Gary, sweetheart. I have something to tell you.” Mother’s voice cracks. “There was an accident.”

He doesn’t believe her. It‘s a trick, it has to be. He can still remember the feel of Rose in his arms and her mouth pressed to his. 

Mother runs after him, yelling as he throws himself into the car, still dressed in his nightclothes. He speeds all the way to the Marshall house. This is all just a trick. If he can just get to her house, Rose will be waiting to laugh at him for believing she was dead.  

He staggers out of the car, all his attention on the house’s door. The one Rose disappeared behind early this morning.  He doesn’t see Rose’s brother coming, until he’s slammed back against the side of his car.  

“You Bastard,” he screams. Hands clenched around Gary‘s throat, “If you‘d just come and picked her up she‘d never have been on that Damn hill.”

Gary’s vision goes dim. He wants to argue. She wasn‘t on the hill. She‘d walked to him on the road. Only that didn’t make sense did it. How would she have known where he’d broken down? And why wouldn’t she have brought her car to look for him?

Mrs. Marshall pulls him off of Gary. “Enough.”

The look she casts him makes it clear she’d be happy if he was as dead as Rose. “Don’t come here again.” 

She drags her son back into the house. 

And Gary is left standing there. Trying to figure out how things could have gone wrong so fast. He slides down the car, to sit on the sidewalk. None of this feels real. But if Rosie was already dead, did that mean he‘d dreamed everything that had happened last night? No. He couldn’t have. It had been so real. Was he dreaming now?

 

He goes home. Falls into bed and lets his Mother bring him chicken soup and tut over him. Rose is buried the next day. A close casket service. He knows better than to try to attend. But that night once all the mourners have gone home he goes to her grave. 

The ground is fresh turned, deep rich earth. Almost as dark as the night sky. The feel of it, cool and damp against his palms is enough to finally make this whole nightmare feel real. 

#

The police get involved after that. Poking and prodding, trying to prove that he was the one who left the second set of tire prints up on the top of Sparrow Hill Road. He wasn’t. 

People had seen him those hours with Rose. At the drive in, and the restaurant parking lots, and all the other places they’d stopped for a rest. Before that big black car had come creeping into view and Rosie had begged him to keep on driving. He should feel vindicated, knowing other people saw them last night. It makes him feel more mad. Nobody else recognized Rose. 

Being the man that stepped out on Rosie Marshall the same night she died, was enough to make most of the Township hate him. Even more than when they’d thought he’d been the one to kill her.

He and Rose were supposed to get out of Buckley. They were supposed to be married, and free. Instead Rose will stay in Buckley Township. And Gary will have to go on alone. 

#

The rest of that year passes in a blur. He leaves for college the minute he can. Watching Buckley disappear behind him, it feels like he can breathe for the first time, since that night. 

He throws himself into college. He‘d thought it would finally let him be free of the memory of Rose. Instead, every place he turns the thought of her rises like a ghost. He wants to commiserate with her about the horrible professor he has. When his car needs repairs, he keeps waiting for her to fix it. She’ll be so angry if she hears he‘s let someone else work on it. 

But every week that passes, he settles into the groove of being his own person a little more. He doesn’t think of her any less. But the pain starts to lessen, replaced by a bittersweet ache. He starts to imagine her up in heaven, laughing as he fumbles his way through this life they‘d planned together. 

If fate had been kind, he might have eventually moved on. Found another girl to love. He may have built a whole life for himself outside of Buckley. It would have been a good life. Love and children and a helping hand for everyone that came his way.

But ghost stories are rarely that kind. 

#

He‘s working the late night shift. The jukebox crooning away and only a couple handfuls of college kids clustered around the tables. When he overhears someone mention a green silk gown. He edges out from behind the counter, acts like he‘s cleaning, until he can get close enough to hear.

“They’re calling her the Phantom Prom date!” The student enthuses. To the oos and ahs of the other students at his table. “She is supposed to appear at the side of the road, dressed in a green silk gown. And when you pick her up, she begs you to take her home. Only before you get there, she disappears right out of the car!”

“Please Gary, if you ever loved me, just drive.” He can practically hear Rose’s voice. 

“Do you know where they saw her?” He asks, loud enough for the student to hear him. The boy gives him an annoyed look, probably for distracting him from the girls he’s with. “What?”

“The phantom prom date. Do you know where people have been picking her up?”

“I don’t know. All over. She just shows up. Why do you care?”

Gary doesn’t answer. His mind is already miles, and years away. On a cold night, in Buckley township. He goes back behind the counter, his mind awhirl with plans. He’ll need to tell his boss he’s quitting and get his tuition money back from the college. Rose is out there waiting for him. 

Maybe spending the rest of his life with her as they traveled the road wasn’t how he’d pictured his life. But he’d do it happily if it meant he’d never have to be without her again. 

“Just wait for me, Rosie. I’ll find you," He whispers. 

And with that sentence he's already stepped onto the road that will lead him down into the Twilight. An accident is coming. And he wouldn't swerve to avoid his fate. Even if he could see it.


End file.
